Domestic livestock need water, and unless it is provided in adequate quantities their output is reduced and they may die. The physiology of water use is discussed in ILCA Research Report No. 7 (King, 1983). How and where water can be located and developed is discussed in ILCA Research Report No. 6 (Classen et al, 1983). It will not always be possible or economic to provide water whenever it is wanted in tropical Africa and in many areas it will always remain a scarce resource of which the most effective use can only be made through good organization and management. While water scarcity is for the most part a constraint to livestock production, it can also be turned to advantage as a management tool. The theme of this report, therefore, is how the use of scarce water resources can be managed and organised to achieve the objectives of production, equity and environmental stability which human societies pursue.
Organisation and management are elastic terms and in this report they are widely stretched to include not only formal organizational structures and the details of administrative procedures, but also people's behaviour and decisions and the factors which determine these. Although this report is mainly concerned with the drier zones of tropical Africa some attention is paid to other zones and their production systems, since comparisons can throw more light on the situation in the drier zones.
Chapter 1 starts with a brief definition of the major agricultural production zones of tropical Africa and of different kinds of water supplies, with some account of the endowment of land and livestock and of the importance of water supplies in each zone. This is followed by a section which distinguishes six livestock production systems of which three are of particular interest in terms of the need for and use of water. These production systems do not coincide with the agricultural zones defined; one may straddle several zones and one zone may contain several production systems. Although production systems cannot usefully be defined precisely or narrowly, the organization and management of water supplies tend to be more homogeneous within systems than between them. Production systems represent, therefore, one (but not the only) convenient approach to this subject. In subsequent chapters examples are given of the organization and management of water use in different systems; and some of the conclusions and prescriptions in Chapter 6 are appropriate for some systems but not for others. Chapter 1, therefore is mainly concerned with clearing the ground on which subsequent analysis and prescriptions can be built.
Chapter 2 discusses the traditional strategies to overcome water shortage which have been adopted by societies in Africa without much access to external resources. The chapter distinguishes five main strategies and, focusing on these, briefly cites examples where they have been adopted. Chapter 3 describes in detail the way in which particular human societies, selected to exemplify different livestock production systems, have sought to overcome water shortage, and this illustrates how strategies are adopted. The chapter ends with a discussion of the factors that determine which traditional strategies are adopted in different societies, systems and zones.
In Chapter 4 we turn to modern strategies, which are defined as at least partially dependent on inputs originating outside Africa. Two principal strategies are discussed together with the factors which determine their adoption. In Chapter 5 the focus switches to the experience of programmes for the development of water supplies. The technical, administrative and environmental problems experienced in the past are discussed as well as the relationship between technology, equity, management and control. Chapter 6 considers the implications of past experience for planning water development in the future. Attention is focused particularly on technology, on decisions about the appropriate capacity and density of water points and on organization and management. Chapter 7 briefly lists some proposals for more research in the future which could lead to the formulation of better policies and development programmes than in the past.
The appendix to the report recommends a nomenclature for different kinds of water resources which, if generally adopted, would lead to greater precision and clarity in discussion of water management.
